Authors: Claire Felter, Assistant Copy Editor/Writer, and James McBride, Senior Online Writer/Editor, Economics
Introduction
The United States has long accepted refugees fleeing persecution or war. From taking in hundreds of thousands of Europeans displaced by World War II to welcoming those escaping from Communist regimes in Europe and Asia during the Cold War, the United States has helped define protections for refugees under international humanitarian law. Beginning in 1980, the U.S. government moved from an ad hoc approach to the permanent, standardized system for identifying, vetting, and resettling prospective refugees that is still in use today.
The size of the U.S. refugee program has often fluctuated. But the war in Syria and the resulting migration crisis in Europe has increased policymaker scrutiny on arrivals from the Middle East, beginning with the Barack Obama administration. President Donald J. Trump, citing mounting concerns over the potential for terrorist infiltration, ratcheted up that scrutiny with his January 2017 executive order placing a temporary ban on all refugee arrivals, sparking debate over the scope of U.S. refugee policy.
Read more on the Council on Foreign Relations' website